Four & Thor 3

I should have had my webcomic up by now, but I'm running slow today.  Instead, let's run another installment of Four n' Thor.  Why not?

Fantastic Four #5
by Jack Kirby, with Joe Sinnott on Inks (Huzzah!) and Stan Lee filling word balloons.

The Story:  Dr. Doom, flying around in a helicopter, drops an electrified asbestos net on the FF's HQ and holds Sue hostage.  Everyone is dragged to Doom's Castle where Doom wants our heroes to travel back in time (via Doom's Time Machine, of course) to retrieve Blackbeard's Treasure.  Reed, Ben, and Johny go back in time, Ben gets a ridiculous costume, and our heroes take over a ship.  We find out that the Thing is, in fact, the legendary Blackbeard (why not?), and they've got the jewels.  Reed pulls a bait and switch, tossing the jewels and replacing them with chains.  Ben tries to stay in the past, but a sudden storm shipwrecks the three.  Shortly, Doom brings them all back to the present, only to reveal that the jewels were enchanted by Merlin (of course.  Why not?), and they grant their user invulnerability.  Doom discovers Reed's little trick, and imprisons our heroes in an oxygenless room to die.  Sue uses her invisibility to flip some switches and save the day.  Ultimately, Doom escapes via jet pack.

Notes:  Whew.  Where to start?  We get the first appearance of Dr. Doom, one of the most important, most iconic, most influential villains in comic book history.  A villain that's been featured in movies, cartoons, video games, toys, and clothing.  And who created that iconic design?  Yep, Jack Kirby.  Doom's costume is almost unchanged in his first appearance.  The only notable difference I've noticed is that in this one issue, Doom doesn't have a cape.  Other than that, this is Doom in all his awesome majestic glory.  Anyway, we don't get Latveria yet, but Doom has his own Castle, his own pet Tiger (yeah, baby!), his own helicopter, and, of course, a Time Machine!  In his First Appearance, Doom has already Mastered Time Travel!  Crazy!  And he's got a jetpack (jetpacks are the coolest).  Oh!  And this is the first appearance of one of Doom's Robot Dr. Doom decoys!  Magic.  Pure Magic.

The Art:  It's early 60s Jack Kirby Inked by early 60s Joe Sinnott.  It's not as jaw dropping as late 60s Jack Kirby inked by late 60s Joe Sinnott, but it's still pretty damn good.

Whatta I Think:  Dr. Doom!  Dr. Doom!  Dr. Doom!  Yes!  Yes!  Yes!

Fantastic Four #6
by Jack Kirby with Dick Ayers doing okay on Inks and Stan Lee doing the thing with the word balloons.

Story:  Our heroes are trying to find Dr. Doom.  Ironically, Dr. Doom finds Namor, and gets Namor to team up with him to destroy the Four (well, everyone but Sue.  Namor wants to bang Sue hardcore style.).  Namor shows up at the Four's HQ and pleasantly tries to take Sue out on a date.  Before that can happen, the entire building gets sucked into Space.  Yut-oh!  Turns out that Namor planted a Magnetic Grabber (can we blame Stan for that name?) in the basement.  As a result, Doom can pull the Four's Building behind his space ship.  Yep, Doom's got a Spaceship, too.  Doom's plan is to chuck the FF and Namor into the Sun.  Our heroes try to stop Doom, but the Not-so-Good Doctor thwarts them at every turn.  Namor decides enough is enough, and launches himself into Doom's ship, outmaneuvers Doom, and sends Doom spiraling into the void of space.  After that, Namor returns the FF's HQ to where it belongs, and takes off, sending the Magnetic Grabber to the bottom of the sea.

Notes:  We get lots of stuff here.  We get the introduction of the FF's Secret Express Elevator (neato).  We get another cut away of the FF's HQ.  Reed mentions that the FF's costumes are made of Unstable Molecules (sigh.  Probably gotta give Stan Lee credit for that one).  We also get the first mention of the Thing's longtime, never seen, archrivals, the dreaded Yancy Street Gang.  Other fun stuff:  Johny tries to fly into outer space with his Flame On.  Idiot.  He sputters out and nearly drifts off to his doom.  Idiot.  Oh, Dr. Doom has a cape now, which is cool.  Oh, and apparently, Namor has the powers of an electric eel, allowing him to absorb and redirect electricity.  I wonder if he ever uses that power ever again?  Hmmm.  Also, this marks the first time Dr. Doom "dies".  Another interesting note:  Sue has definitely got the hots for Namor, and Reed really doesn't seem to care at all.  Hell, the Thing gets more steamed about everything than Reed does.

The Art:  Kinda chunky, but there's still some cool moments, like the various shots of Namor's lost undersea kingdom.  There's also some cool shots of Namor swimming with dolphins.  I wanna swim with dolphins.  The big jaw dropper is a killer shot of the Four's HQ floating high above New York.  Lovely.

Whatta I Think:  Dude.  It's a Supervillain Team Up.  There's a building flying through space.  There's Namor kicking ass in the craziest way possible.  Doom dying (for now).  Everything a brilliant comic should have.

Journey Into Mystery featuring Thor #87
by Jack Kirby with Dick Ayers (jeez, that guy inked a lot of Kirby), Larry Lieber continuing to waste our time filling in word balloons, and Stan Lee getting a credit for doing nothing.

Story:  More crap with the Reds.  A bunch of scientists are defecting to the Reds.  Dr. Blake decides to make himself human bait by developing a BIOLOGICAL WEAPON (!!!).  Surely enough, a fake photographer uses hypnotic gas (I gotta get me some of that) to abduct Dr. Blake and cart him off to Russia.  Down in the dungeon with the other stolen scientists, Blake turns into Thor and wrecks up the place.  There's a brief turn over, but in the end, Thor prevails, saving the scientists and smashing the Reds' Citadel. 

Notes:  Really nothing worth mentioning.  Kind of a retread of the previous Commie issue.  Although, I gotta say, Dr. Blake creating a biological weapon just so he can get kidnapped... that's just irresponsible.

The Art:  Again, nothing of real noteworthiness. 

Whatta I Think:  Ugh.  Another issue where Thor fights Commies.  A bit of a waste of time.  We'll have a few more of these before we get to the good stuff.

JIM feat. Thor #88
by Jack Kirby with Dick Ayers, Larry Leiber, and Stan Lee signing paychecks.

The Story:  Stuck in Asgard, but craving revenge, Loki uses his Magic to discover Thor's whole Dr. Blake/can't lose the Hammer for more than 60 seconds weakness.  Shapeshifting into a snake, Loki sneaks past Heimdall (people sneaking past Heimdall will become something of a running gag), and returns to Earth.  Hypnotizing Jane Foster, Loki uses her as bait to separate Thor from his Hammer, trapping it behind a force field.  Stuck as lame ass Dr. Blake, all Don can do is watch as the God of Mischief runs amok pulling massive pranks across the World.  In the end, Blake uses a Fake Plastic Thor (wha?) to fake out Loki, tricking him into dropping his forcefield.  Blake regains his Thor-ness and beats Loki in no time flat, returning him to Asgard.  Hooray!

Notes:  Welp, first off, we get the first full body appearance of Odin.  Also, we get the more traditional version of Hiemdall, and a better glimpse of Asgard.  We also see the full power of Loki's incredible magics, as he shapeshifts a bunch, and reshapes reality at will, turning people into blank images (crazy) and turning streets and cars into candy and ice cream (super crazy).  The ending is a bit ridiculous, as Thor manages to outmaneuver Loki (who's turned into a Pigeon) with a bag of nuts and a volley ball net.  Silly stuff to be sure.

Oh, and even though the cover has Odin mention that Thor and Loki are brothers, the two of them don't really acknowledge it during the story.  The only actual indication is that Odin states that Loki is his son.  Weird.

The Art:  Loki does some crazy stuff with his magic.  Guns with wings, baby.  Guns with wings.

Whatta I Think:  Okay, the ending is silly.  Really silly.  Still, I feel like this is a better installment of the Thor/Loki rivalry than the first one.  If nothing else, we really get to see why the God of Mischief got his title.

Two killer issues of FF, plus one crummy issue of Thor, and one pretty good one.  Things are starting to come together.